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Was Aledoâs 91-0 football win last week a case of bullying?

Aledo High School Coach Tim Buchanan, as heâs done after
every game this season, gathered his assistants last Friday night to go
over another Bearcats victory.

This time, the mood was somber.

âWe were just sitting there,â Buchanan said. âYouâd have thought we
got beat. I looked around and asked, âIs there anyone here that feels
good?ââ

Aledo beat Fort Worth Western Hills 91-0 at home, pushing
its season scoring pace to 69.3 points a game and running its undefeated
record to 7-0. In four District 7-4A games against Fort Worth schools,
the Bearcats have outscored their opponents by an average of 77 points
per game.

While the lopsided victories are no doubt tough for the
losing teams, Buchanan said the margins of victory are troublesome for
him as well.

âIâm upset about it,â Buchanan said. âI donât like
it. I sit there the whole third and fourth quarter and try to think how I
can keep us from scoring.â

Others are also upset about the point spreads.

Buchanan said he received notice Saturday morning that a bullying report had been filed against him by a Western Hills parent.

Under
state law, school districts must provide a bullying complaint report
form on their websites. Aledo High Schoolâs principal is required to
investigate the allegations to determine whether bullying occurred and
prepare a written report on the matter.

Buchanan said he has the support of the Aledo administration. But he didnât dismiss the serious nature of the complaint.

âI
have to address it,â Buchanan said. âItâs not something you can laugh
off or anything like that. What they said was that I shouldâve told my
players to ease up and not play so hard.â

Western Hills Coach John Naylor said he disagrees with the allegations that his team was bullied.

âI
think the game was handled fine,â Naylor said. âTheyâre No. 1 for a
reason, and I know coach Buchanan. Weâre fighting a real uphill battle
right now.â

Naylor, whose roster had around 30 players Friday night, said there was only so much Aledo could do to stop scoring.

âWe
just ran into a buzzsaw, you know,â Naylor said. â[Aledo] just plays
hard. And theyâre good sports, and they donât talk at all. They get
after it, and thatâs the way football is supposed to be played in
Texas.â

Texas School Safety Week

Football
as a method of bullying is not addressed by the Texas Education code,
which defines bullying as âas engaging in written or verbal expression,
expression through electronic means, or physical conduct that occurs on
school property, at a school-sponsored or school-related activity âŚ and
that has the effect or will have the effect of physically harming a
student âŚ or is sufficiently severe, persistent, and pervasive enough
that the action or threat creates an intimidating, threatening, or
abusive educational environment for a student.â

This week, as part
of Texas Safe Schools Week, the Texas Education Agency and Texas School
Safety Center at Texas State University are reminding school districts
about the resources available to help combat bullying.

âWe
all recognize that bullying creates a negative climate for students,
staff, parents and the community,â Dr. Victoria Calder, director of the
Texas School Safety Center, said in a news release. âEducators and
students must work together to prevent bullying in our schools and our
communities.â

Reached later by the Star-Telegram,
Calder said she could not talk specifically about the Aledo case, but
was not aware of any such complaints being made before about a football
game.

She said there are a lot of misconceptions about what is and
is not bullying, and gave the example of a little girl shoving another
little girl at school.

âThat doesnât make it bullying,â Calder said. âYou have to look at each case individually.â

Next week, the Texas School Safety Center will conducts it inaugural Texas Bully Prevention Summit in San Marcos.

Starters pulled early

Buchanan said he enjoys the Bearcatsâ big victories for about a half.

âIn the first half, Iâm excited about us scoring, then Iâm sitting here going what the heck am I going to do?â he said.

And
this year, the big victories have come in bunches. In addition to their
success in district play, the Bearcats have impressive non-district
victories over traditional powerhouses Highland Park (44-3) and
Stephenville (56-14).

In Fridayâs victory over Western Hills, the
Bearcats rushed for 391 yards and scored eight touchdowns on the ground.
Running back Jess Anders had four touchdowns on four touches. Ryan
Newsome returned consecutive punt returns for scores.

Buchanan
said he pulled his starters on offense after 21 snaps and that a running
clock was implemented in the third quarter. Aledoâs quarterbacks
combined for 10 pass attempts.

While 91 points is usually
associated with a basketball game, it is not the most ever scored in a
high school football game in Texas.

That came in 1969 when Valley Mills scored 103 against Grandview, according to Dave Campbellâs Texas Football.

I agree that for a parent to accuse the other team of bullying is ridiculous. But I've heard sports types say that there's something unsportsmanlike about running up the score like that. Still, unsportsmanlike is not bullying, by any means.

Taking a knee three times every other possession would be unsportsmanlike.

What can you do when a team is simply that much better?

Quoting momtoscott:

I agree that for a parent to accuse the other team of bullying is ridiculous. But I've heard sports types say that there's something unsportsmanlike about running up the score like that. Still, unsportsmanlike is not bullying, by any means.

Probably nothing more. If I was one of the losing coaches, though, I would ask the winning coach for a few lessons in how to run a football program.

My college football team was regularly beaten with similar scores. It's not fun to be part of a loss like that, but it's certainly not bullying.

Quoting tanyainmizzou:

Starters are pulled after a few plays.

Passes aren't thrown any more.

Taking a knee three times every other possession would be unsportsmanlike.

What can you do when a team is simply that much better?

Quoting momtoscott:

I agree that for a parent to accuse the other team of bullying is ridiculous. But I've heard sports types say that there's something unsportsmanlike about running up the score like that. Still, unsportsmanlike is not bullying, by any means.

Good grief. It's a game and in a game there's a winner and a loser. Yep it sucks that the other team was out-scored by such a huge margin but there's not much that can be done when one team is so much better than the other.
Most coaches don't want to run up the score like that but it happens. If a team member catches the ball, of course they're going to try to score. What else should they do...stand there and say, hey there's a huge difference in the score so I'm not going to do what my team expects me to do? Or perhaps whoever catches the ball should just give it to the other team and everyone else can just stand around and let them score. The parent who complained must be infected with the "everyone who wants to be on the team gets to be and everyone gets a trophy regardless so they don't feel badly" mentality.

Here we go again. Everyone needs to get a trophy. Give me a break. He had 3rd string kids in to play, who show up to practice everyday. What should they have done? Just sat on the sidelines and let the losing team have the field to themselves so they could score? No, those kids deserve the chance to play their best too. Their parents and grand parents are there and they finally get to see their kid score a touchdown, make a tackle, get a block, etc. AWESOME!!

Shame on this parent who is making such a spectacle. Congrats to all the players who played in the game and gave it their all.

From the looks of it the team was just better. Oh well. Lick your wounds, practice more and live to fight another day. Why don't kids learn this anymore?

I used to do speech competitions. They were basically competitions in areas such as poetry readings, storytelling, extemporanous speaking and things like that. When I first started I wasnt' good. I didn't win. But that didn't stop me. I kept practicing and finding the areas I was good at. By the time I graduated I was a state level champ. I was also given the opportunities for scholarships (why oh why didn't I take them!!!).

It is all in your mindset. Crushing defeats happen. That is when you pick yourself up off the ground and your try again later.

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